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March
1995
Prachanda's
Unity Centre held its "Third Plenum", during which they foreswore elections
(it is believed at the insistence of RIM) and decided to take up arms.
It was during that meeting that the Unity Centre was renamed the Communist
Party of Nepal (Maoist).
September
1995
The
party's central committee adopted a "Plan for the historical initiation
of the people's war" which stated that the "protracted people's war [will
be] based on strategy of encircling the city from the countryside according
to the specificities of our country. The Party once again reiterates its
eternal commitment to the theory of people's war developed by Mao as the
universal and invincible Marxist theory of war."
February
1996
Baburam
Bhattarai presented the Nepali Congress-led coalition government
of Sher Bahadur Deuba with a list of 40 demands related to "nationalism,
democracy and livelihood". These included abrogation of both the 1950 and
the Mahakali treaties with India (one on "peace and friendship" and the
other on the sharing of the water on the western frontier river); introducing
work permits for foreign (i.e. Indian) workers in Nepal; curtailing all
privileges of the royal family; drafting of a new constitution through
a constituent assembly; nationalising the property of "comprador and bureaucratic
capitalists"; declaring Nepal a secular nation; and also details such as
providing villages with roads, drinking water and electricity; and complete
guarantee of freedom of speech and publication.
Incidentally, these demands
were not much different from the points outlined in the 1991 election manifesto
of the above-ground united UPF. Bhattarai's covering letter contained an
ultimatum that unless the government initiated positive steps towards fulfilling
those demands by 17 February 1996, "we will be forced to embark on an armed
struggle against the existing state." .
Prime
Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba was on a state visit to India when the
Maoists struck in six districts on 13 February 1996, four days before the deadline
had even expired.
The Maoists have begun the uprising. |
